Transfers so far: we are doomed.

By Walter Broeckx

If you look at the way some people behave on the internet one could think that we are already at the last day of the transfer window and we haven’t bought anyone. Not even the youngster that was mentioned in the rumours. Rumours that will have passed more than 100 names in the rumour mill by now.

But once again when checking my clock I see that we are not even half way the month of June. In fact the official transfer market only opens in some 17 days. And yet people proclaim the end is near, Wenger will not spend all that money we have and that it will be the fault of Kroenke finally because he wants to fill his pockets.

Now of course all other clubs have better managers than we have with Wenger. All other clubs have better presidents than Kroenke who is only there “to fill his pockets”. And don’t let us get started about Gazidis who knows nothing about anything if you can believe the guys who know better than all of them together. So let us check those other clubs today and see which shining new players they have bought already.

Here we go and I am taking the data from the Premier league side so this is about deals that are more or less confirmed. Not some paper invention. This is what we get :

Arsenal In: /

Aston Villa In: Aleksandar Tonev (Lech Poznan) Undisclosed

Cardiff City In: /

Chelsea In: /  Schürrle (from Leverkusen).  £18.7

Crystal Palace In:/

Everton In: /

Fulham In:      Derek Boateng (FC Dnipro) Free
Fernando Amorebieta (Athletic Bilbao) Free
Maarten Stekelenburg (AS Roma) Undisclosed

Hull City In: George Boyd (Peterborough United) Free

Liverpool In: Kolo Toure (Manchester City) Free*.  Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo) £7m

Manchester City In: Fernandinho (Shakhtar Donetsk) Undisclosed fee
Jesus Navas (Sevilla) £14.9m

Manchester United In: Guillermo Varela (Atletico Penarol) Undisclosed*

Newcastle United In: /

Norwich City In:        Ricky Van Wolfswinkel (Sporting Lisbon) Undisclosed*
Javier Garrido (Lazio) Undisclosed

Southampton In: /

Stoke City In: /

Sunderland In:           Cabral (Basle) Free*
Modibo Diakite (Lazio) Free*
Valentin Roberge (Maritimo) Free*

Swansea City In:       Jose Canas (Real Betis) Free*

Tottenham Hotspur In: /

West Bromwich Albion In: /

West Ham United In :           Razvan Rat (Shakhtar Donetsk) Free
Adrian (Real Betis) Free*

*The transfer will go through on July 1

So this means that 9 of the 20 teams bought nothing up to now. And from the other 11 teams we see that Fulham and Sunderland have brought in 3 players each. 6 players in total of whom 5 are on a free.

In total 19 players have been bought up to now by the 20 teams in the PL. Not even one player per team. And 10 of those 19 players are free transfers.

And yet some part of the Arsenal fan world is behaving as if we have been hit by disaster and that nothing can save us any more.We have 2,5 months before the transfer window closes. We have a team that at the end of the season looked to have grown in to a real team and leading the tables in the last months by picking up more points than the other teams.

A team that could do with some adding to and I am sure that there will be some quality adding to this team that knows how to fight and how to get results at the end of the season.

Why don’t we all relax and just wait what will happen? Oh and it might be helpful to not read the rumours and if you do want to read them: just laugh with them. Just look at them as what it really is: invention and fabrication from a media that lives from inventing and fabricating stories.

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56 Replies to “Transfers so far: we are doomed.”

  1. It’s amazing some fans – although I use the word “fans” in the loosest possible term.

    Arsenal finishes with the strongest form from any club, with a solidarity that has grown. But you won’t please some.

    I for one am looking forward to next season with optimism compared to last.

    Football has changed and it is a pitty that some are only intrested in the price tag rather than the ability of a player but that says alot about Gen Y and the fans that have never seen Arsenal under another Manager than Wenger.

  2. Time and time again, fans think they are there to enjoy free entertainment. The more “stars” and high value players there are in the team, the more “free stuff” they think they are getting.

    OK. Some fans pay to get into the arena so the more “stars” and high value players the more they are getting in return for the ticket money, or so they think.

    And for certain, everyone welcome somebody coming in to give free food, free drink and free games so “sugar daddies” are always welcomed. Afterall, who does not want free stuff?

    That’s been the story forover two thousand years since the Roman games.

  3. But surely with every transfer you get a three point start on all the other teams,getting someone in is far more important than winning a game,we need to celebrate a signing,Its a well known fact that all the moaners will promise to shut up this winter if they get one,just one !! ‘marquee signing’ (Pre July only).

  4. I see West Ham have signed a Rat, I didn’t realize that Joey Barton was coming back to the premiership. The headline writers can have a field day with him and Wolfswinkel.

  5. I think there is an almost perfect storm of expectation from the support this summer. We have in the main suffered during the last half decade in terms of watching our best and brightest leave and finaly, FINALY! We have had clear and definitive statements from all sources within our club that this year it all changes. We have been promised a new type of Summer with proactive, quality signings that add to our squad rather than detract from it.
    Top quality players that will concentrate our qualities instead of diluting them.
    The longer it goes on until that first name is confirmed, the more agitated and unsettled the supporters in general will be. we have been deprived for so long of recognised top level reinforcements that a large percentage of our support wont believe it until they see it and the AAA will use this doubt to fuel their agenda gleefully.
    I post under my own name and back in the day Tony was kind enough to print my articles. Nobody could question my support through thick and thin for all those involved in the club because our motto to me is more that just 3 latin words.
    However make no mistake. If this year, after all the media hype and all the promises and all the posturing, the club fails to deliver on transfers and yet again the best players go to our rivals whilst we haggle over the margins…….
    There will be no forgiveness.
    Talk is cheap. It is time to deliver.

  6. Spot on article, echoes exactly what I’ve been saying the last few weeks. Sadly though the press create these rumours, and not only that they insinuate that the deal is pretty such signed sealed delivered which gets most Arsenal fans wetting themselves. Then when it doesn’t happen the fans get angry an frustrated, but instead of realising the media talk bo**ocks they blame Wenger and the board for it falling through.

    The signings will come, have no doubt about that. 3 decent signings and we’ll be ready to challange at the top again. In Wenger we trust.

  7. Maybe we should encourage Wenger to procrastinate until the better players are all taken by other teams. Or better still let Arsenal wait until they are trashed 8:2 then they rally round and collect players who would either end up not playing a single match or even when they do, they give us a woeful performance that makes us wonder if they are true professionals.

  8. All this rumours is what I can’t understand! The price of the player doesn’t matter but what matters most is his quality. In Wenger we trust.

  9. You can’t blame fans for their anger. How many years have we heard the promise of funds, only for no substantial investment in the team to materialise
    Our board, Gazadis abc Wenger have history here
    No wonder some fans are suspicious

  10. I notice some negative comments but once again I notice that some use different mail addresses from the same location. You will not pass the Untold anti-AAA barrier like that 😉

  11. That cannot often enough be repeated:
    “And yet some part of the Arsenal fan world is behaving as if we have been hit by disaster and that nothing can save us any more. We have 2,5 months before the transfer window closes. We have a team that at the end of the season looked to have grown in to a real team and leading the tables in the last months by picking up more points than the other teams.”
    Some of the so-called “fans” simply comment without using their brains.

  12. I’m not bothered cuz arsenal will sign but the question is ‘Will they be quality enough?’. If you check the other top teams(Man U,Man City, Chelsea) they’ve all signed quality players and Arsenal are a top team, so at least one top quality signing (Higaun & Co.) will make the fans happy at least til the window officially opens.

  13. To be honest I had never heard of Varela who signed for Utd and I don’t know if he is a quality signing. Would we applaud him as a quality signing if we would have brought him in?
    A 20 year old defender with no caps for the national team as far as I can fin.

  14. It’s pathetic that fans can oh see a discussion in terms of AAA or AKB
    Surely most people are neither , or a bit of both

  15. So the season ends, and there is no football for a few months. We should all go on holiday and pay attention to our long neglected families, but we have become so ingrained on our habit of checking the latest Arsenal news, that we can’t but help checking out all the papers, clicking on all the websites. Most of the players are probably off on their holidays, but we still keep on reading….. But there is no news. Nothing is happening. Arsenal FC are chilling out over a cold beer. Unable to cope with this, journalists and bloggers, unable to wind down from the mania of the season, have to keep on typing articles…. Bit with nothing to say, all that is left is fiction… The annual mini series called ‘Transfer Market’. Dramas and crises created… Will Wenger deliver us from impending doom…. (dramatic high paced musical accompaniment). Arsenal FC is sipping cold beers at this time of the year. We should all get a life and do the same.

  16. @Walter nice piece@chrisN just keep writing we are in holidays and lets give it a break and see what transpires after all we are the Arsenal. What if we don’t sign??? Will the sewer rats hung themselves!What if we promote some 3 or 4 guys from the second team will it be the end of the world??Nooo,lets chill out relax and enjoy what the whorelists bring and all will be fine. By the way Walcot is in Las any body who wana party lets join him.

  17. Why don’t we all relax and just wait what will happen? We all know what is going to happen ! The same thing that happens EVERY summer under Wenger absolutely NOTHING. Why do people continue to have faith with this man ? ? You all celebrate just pipping Spurs to fourth like its some kind of achievement and then you expect a man who has shown no ambition at all to suddenly change his ways and sign big players. Arsenal will do fuck all in the summer and will achieve fuck all next season – I would put my life on it..

  18. Good Post.
    But the team’s strength you hyped at the end of the season can be seen as this team is not capable of performing under pressure.
    Remember the last 10 or so games that ARSENAL was out of all 4 competitions.

  19. What you talking about fabrication. talk sport have just confirmed we have signed bobby Charlton and lord Lucan

  20. Leon, you should calm down rather than promising to commit suicide.
    Now where’s that cold beer…

  21. Leon,
    when it comes to buying I seem to remember Arsenal buying 3 internationals last summer and one in the winter. All full internationals for their country.
    Yes, nothing happens at Arsenal.
    We only have 2 or 3 players left from the team that started most games 3 seasons ago. Nothings happens at the Arsenal you said?

  22. @Gunz i will never expect anything productive from that twat Riley not until he explains why he never gave us a penalty and instead gave it the other way.Oh by the way from that match he was promoted,c…

  23. It is clearly evident from some of the comments that for some fans, a marquee signing is more important than the game itself and the only other thing more important than that is a trophy. What happened to watching the game and being part of the highs and lows? When did Arsenal all of a sudden become the only team that should be capable of winning a trophy? I think people need to take a reality check – the first step is to stop reading the red tops and crap news outlets.

  24. I don’t understand this crap about “the transfer window is not officially open” or are you saying that the neymahs, silvas, shulles, fernandinhos and co. Signed by their farious clubs are just a tip of the iceberg?

  25. We’ve been a bit slow to move and we’ve heard this before. Also fulham got stakemberg from rome. Top class keeper like that. How are fulham doing better. In the market than we are before its even started. I don’t think any of us can take another summer with chamkhs and squillaccis coming in

  26. @Tony Attwood
    Or Podolski, Arteta and Mertesacker. Pol and Mert, about 180 German caps between them, rubbish aren’t they!
    Get real Ty, you mention goalies, according to last seasons stats issued by Bloomberg Sports Wojciech Szczesny came in 3rd best goalie, Cesar who it appears we may have secured came 9th!

  27. @Nakew

    “Remember the last 10 or so games that ARSENAL was out of all 4 competitions.”

    Er, I might be mistaken but so were 90% of all other football clubs in the world………………..

    Splendid article Walter.

  28. I really appreciate this round-up, Walter — I’ve just about given up on most of the mainstream football press, as it’s more about rumors than actual confirmed transfers, so I really haven’t been following the summer’s business.

    And if you would indulge me in a little speculation — City’s buys suggest that there isn’t a place in the team for Nasri next year, we may want to calculate his cost to them per game for the next Post-Arsenal Effect article…

  29. Walter, are most transfer rumours linked to betting outlets, in that people will feel more comfortable parting with their cash if the papers are advertising a players transfer?

  30. @Mick I haven’t seen the stats but I have said this before Szczesny is better than Julio cesar. Inter Milan sold Cesar cuz he wasn’t good enough anymore(he used to be classed goalie)

  31. Thanks for your painstaking work Walter. Also, this is not just about accurate reporting. Most of the force of this practice lies in the editorializing. It is here that that groundswell of antipathy towards the club is being created and carried over to games during the season. Something to laugh about – hardly! A disgraceful practice? Absolutely yes, but there does not appear to be much we can do about it except what you are currently doing. So keep it up and many thanks.

  32. Wenger is wrecking the summer. OGL’s dithering has already cost us Rooney, Fellaini, that Egyptian guy from Milan, Higuain, Villa, Benteke, Ashley Williams, Isco and Fabregas. It is a deliberate ploy to leave us with the deadwood, players he rates highly, thinks he can develop and control. The reason, just follow the money, he is too tight to pay wages for new players over the summer so leaves it until the last few hours of the transfer window, a source told me that is fact. Money vs trophies, no contest. Sack Wenger, Gazidis and Kronke.

  33. Walter

    Arsenal Holdings plc

    Statement of Accounts and Annual Report 2011/2012:

    Players sold £69.4 millions (excluding VAT)

    Players bought £89.8 millions (excluding VAT)

    I cannot understand the hubbub!

  34. I read it somewhere, Madrid will not sell Higuain until they have new coach.

    Are any rules that make club can not sell their players if they don’t have manager?

  35. I dont think arsenal fans are to blame if they want a big name addition by this time. They have mostly been patient all through this barren 8 year spell. Like all sensible fans they know that their beloved club has been under a lot of financial pressure as they built a brand new stadium. I dont think sensible fans will be disappointed with 4th place finish this time round. But what pains most is the inability of the club to get their transfer business done early enough. All they need is an assurance that their team is going to be challenging for all the compititions they participate. This time round with Gazidis saying that significant amount is available to spend on transfer related activities expectations are naturally going up.
    We have often seen that we come good towards the end of the season.And at the same time we also hear that the team is under performing because the players dont know each other quite as much as they would have liked. Now if some part of the transfer related activities is done early enough it gives new incoming players a chance to get acquainted with their teammates early. With other teams, especially Man U, Chelski, Liverpool and Man Shitty, all bringing a few players in fans are expecting Arsenal to sign somebody as well. After all these years of frugality we can certainly change strategy if needed. Ofcourse i am not going to go into transfer speculations as to who should come in and who should go out as Wenger really takes care of that well but getting them early would certainly help. Also some persistent problems need addressing, for example,we should invest in a natural left winger as Podolsky is not a natural left sided player. He can only fill in. Previously we experimented with Arshavin and failed. So the fans are obviously expecting some big names to arrive to take care of these problems. The fans are waiting eagerly to see that we can not only compete with but beat others to tiltes. That is why this expectation that something will happen this time round that has not happened in the last 8 years.

  36. Gouresh, I think because some teams don’t play it by the rules. Of course all teams will do this but some teams will not want to announce them until the transfer window is officially open. I wouldn’t be surprised if Arsenal is one of those clubs.

    Free transfers are of course exceptions but they all will only become official at the 1st of July.

    Last year we did announce the signing of Podolski before the official date. This was because Podolski (or his environment) couldn’t wait to tell the news and they released the news before Arsenal. And so Arsenal could do nothing else but confirm it. But I think they didn’t like it at all

  37. What rubbish some posters on this blog excrete like vomit from a dying dog! It’s the same old, wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh we bought shite since 2005, wahhhhhhhhhhhhh every other club has brought in superstars and we haven’t waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, we have no silverware, wahhhhhhhhh Wenger is a wanker, wahhhhhhhhhhh we want what we paid for, with the highest ticket prices in the known universe, ad nauseam.

    Here are a few facts even you moaning,whining morons can perhaps fathom:

    1)Wenger has spent a little less than what he has earned by selling some of our so-called ¨core ¨players….do the math, we therefore HAVE spent a lot but not within our limits!

    2)So Cazorla, Walcott, the OX, Ramsey, Wilshere,Miyachi, Podolski, Arteta, Monreal, Jenkinson, Giroud, Rosicky, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen and Szcesny are all shite?

    3)The silly season has just begun and you cretins are pissing your panties about what we haven’t done and how far ahead other Clubs are…but as Walter clearly pointed out to your dim-witted selves, there are still 2 months to go in the TW.

    4) The real wankers are you fickle,pseudo-fans who keep on harping and ranting about fictional doom and despair invented in your fetid, media-inflamed craniums. Wenger is class and you are his baggage left behind at the station.

    5)We aren’t paying the highest ticket prices either in the known universe or in the EPL, since as Tony and Walter have oft proven, we get more per capita than others who pay the same ticket prices….but I know maths isn’t your strong point….crying and bitching are.

    Anyone who gets upset and writes dumb crap on UA, based on spurious media-inspired rumours and self-inflicted hysteria in reaction to the gutter press’ inventions and hyperbole deserves the ulcers they generate for themselves and a box of chocolate x-lax cookies to relieve their brain constipation.

  38. Domhuail,

    Thanks for that smackdown but do they ever listen? These losers (I’m sorry but that’s what they are) have crystallised football into only 2 issues: signing players and winning trophies! Like I have posted many time here, these are people who have little accomplishments in their own lives, so they want to fill the void with the achievements of the club they claim to support.

    I have seen utter losers feel superior to more accomplished individuals just because they could afford to buy a knockoff Barcelona/ManU/Chelsea shirt! Other losers who are reputed to be ‘Arsenal fans’ (mostly because they jumped on Wenger’s success bandwagon) see this and feel left out from the state of pseudo achievement and superiority.

    So, they come online and whinge about the club.

    A fan questioning the commitment of the club’s players and management to success is like a lay citizen questioning the commitment of his country’s soldiers and military leaders during wartime. Every time they fail in battle, the soldiers and the top military bass feel it more. You don’t get to moan and question their commitment because you pay higher taxes!

  39. @ Walter: if the clubs have signed before the window opens, surely there would be repurcations by the governing body. If not, what stops the clubs doing this throughout the year.

  40. gouresh,

    Clubs can announce a signing anytime an agreement has been reached between the two parties, the transfer window is a registration period for the clubs to clarify their playing squads, It’s only called a transfer window for ease of understanding but is in fact a registration period.

    We could buy a player anytime but can only register them at the correct time, Summer & winter. A player can even leave their club and train with their new club but cannot participate in official matches until their registration is approved by the national association he is moving to or within.

    Hope this helps.

  41. Thank God for the sound of silence ?

    Fred and Bubba are quietly sitting in a boat fishing,
    chewing tobacco and drinking beer when suddenly
    Bubba says, “Think I’m gonna divorce the wife – she
    ain’t spoke to me in over 2 months.”

    Earl spits overboard, takes a long, slow sip of beer and says, “Better think it over…………..women like that are hard to find.”

  42. Awaiting God ? Hold on !

    Andy, the Emergency Call Center worker in London, England, has been dismissed from his job, much to the dismay of colleagues who were reportedly unhappy with his treatment.

    It seems a male caller dialed 999 from a mobile phone stating, “I am depressed and lying here on a railway track. I am waiting for the train to come so I can finally meet God..”

    Apparently “remain calm and stay on the line” was not considered to be an appropriate or correct response….

  43. Apparently Southampton have signed Dejan Lovren, a player I have been wanting at Arsenal for some time. Oh well, closet Saints fan next season it is then.

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